Rock A Bye, Baby
by mydoctortennant
Summary: NO EMERGENCT EXIT UNIVERSE; When their daughter won't stop crying, Arthur and Gwen are at a loss for what to do.


Alexandria Amelia Pendragon was born on the 13th October, on a Friday. She wasn't an unlucky child. She had two doting parents who had spent the first month of their daughter's life in the NICU by her bedside at every given moment of the day.

She was the first child to be born to two members of staff in the ER department at Albion Hospital which automatically made every member of staff excessively paw over her and spoiler her rotten with cuddles and a shower of presents and toys.

They only lived in a smallish apartment; it wasn't as if they had room to put everything on show.

With her mother still on maternity leave from the hospital, Alexandria was always spoilt by her. She would spend all day with her mother either in their home or travelling to see her father when he was working an extra long shift; meeting him for lunch only to spend most of the time being fawned over by the nurses in the ER (and the doctors at that).

They'd travelled to see him during his lunch hour today and he'd met them in the ambulance bay to avoid other people distracting them from actually leaving and giving him a break.

Once they'd returned to their home Gwen had put Lexie to sleep for her afternoon sleep (which joined the rest of the day napping she seemed to do as well). But at a little over two months old she was still waking up during the night to be fed.

After working a double shift all Arthur wanted to do was sleep. It was the middle of the afternoon when he'd gotten home from working for twenty hours straight. The sun was still high in the sky but luckily for him drawing the curtains in the bedroom would block out all the light so he could catch up on some much needed sleep.

He hadn't counted on his daughter decided that her matured lungs needed a work out that afternoon, crying at top volume. He'd stuck his head underneath his pillow in attempt to drown out the noise.

When did she get so noisy? No, not noisy, loud.

Arthur groaned and turned over in bed. The crying was relentless.

He appeared in the doorway of their bedroom to see Gwen holding Alexandria against her shoulder, quietly shushing her, willing her cries to stop, he assumed so he could sleep.

"Come on sweetie, what's wrong hmm?" Gwen cooed soothingly as she ran her fingers over her girl's curls, "Fed, burped, sung to, changed, what else could you possibly need?"

"Daddy?" Arthur inputted closing the gap between them. He held out his hands in offer to take their daughter from her.

Gwen handed her over and he cradled her gently rocking her, which would usually work. But she persisted. Her small arms squirmed, her face screwed up as she wailed.

"Fed?"

"Just after you got in."

"Changed?"

"Just before."

"So what's up?" he said down to the crying child in his arms. He sat on the sofa and gently continued to rock her, "Hmm? Not seen Uncle Merlin's stupid mug?"

"I'm at a loss."

"She's not hot," he said checking her temperature, "She's not cold."

"She's not ill," Gwen said, knowing full well that she wasn't crying because of it, she was fine, "She's never cried this much before. It's not colic."

"She could be developing it?"

"Don't say that," Gwen snapped, "We don't need her screaming all the time. You don't. You need to get some sleep."

"Maybe she's just over tired. We're fussing over her all the time; maybe just leaving her to settle would be better?" Arthur rationalised, heading towards the nursery, "Besides, if you've done everything, what else is there?"

"Fine," she let him disappear with Lexie into the nursery and didn't follow them. She picked up the most recent copy of the Radio Times and threw herself down onto the sofa. Arthur wasn't the only one who needed sleep. They all did.

Arthur re-emerged from the nursery not long after, closing the door on the cries that were still coming. Gwen abandoned her magazine and looked up at Arthur with wide eyes, "How can you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Close the door on her crying?" He asked taking a seat at the other end of the sofa to Gwen with a reassuring smile. She dealt with Lexie every hour of every day. He knew it bugged her when he came home and he could take control and sort her out. Sometimes it just took a fresh head to figure things out. Fresh eyes on the situation, and all that. But it still annoyed her.

"She just needs to settle down," he reasoned, knowing full ell that Gwen would understand, "You say you've done everything, give her ten minutes, she'll settle down, she'll stop crying and she'll sleep."

"What if something is wrong?" Gwen started with worry in her eyes, "What if she's sick?"

"Then we'll take her down to the ER," he rested his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye, "But think about it, Gwen, you're a nurse, you know she's well. You're just panicking."

"Yes! Actually, I am!" She knocked his hands off of her and went to move towards the nursery.

Arthur stood and grabbed from her wrist. He pulled her back towards him and held onto her firmly, "Calm down, she's fine."

"What if-"

"Gwen-"

"-she's sic-"

"Guine_vere_!" Gwen stopped, and looked up at him guiltily knowing she was over reacting completely, "She's fine. Listen," she did and all she could hear were the reminiscent cries that were slowly dying down, "She just needed to calm herself down."

There was a sudden, shrill cry that filled their ears and Arthur cringed.

Gwen raised an eyebrow at him and headed into the nursery without him trying to stop her.

"That's it," Arthur muttered to himself, "I'm phoning Merlin."


End file.
